NeonCon 2011, Part Two

Thursday

My Neoncon trip started with an early morning as I dropped my two girls at school, then off to the doctor for some blood work, and finally onto Pueblo Airport. Pueblo sits on the Arkansas River and was the old border with Mexico.

So I got to the Airport. The place is very small. However the café there (Spitfire Grill) does serve a nice green chili, which I enjoyed on eggs. Nice. Very nice. Good spice, I ordered the half-and-half and it was, well I already said it, nice. The Allegiant Air plane lands and moves up to the terminal. I kid you not; the MD-80 was longer than the terminal. I left the terminal, went outside to check and sure enough…

If something happened during the flight, I had no knowledge of it. I slept throughout, waking up as we were over Hoover Dam (I assume it was Hoover Dam). Shuttle to the Tropicana and voila!

I told Doug that I would GM a slot at 2pm, but to put my name is soft ink as I would likely be delayed (I was). When I got to the con, it that 2:20 or so, my table had folded and the guys had moved to another table. I wanted to run The Dalsine Affair but had no problem with what was done. So I enjoyed the free time. Looked around, chatted with people, including Mike Brock with whom I had an extended discussion (the chat I mentioned on my previous post). I got to talk with Doug a little, played a game of Orbit, said hello to a lot of people I hadn’t seen in at least a year. I used this to do a lot of socializing which is a rare boon to me at con, since I generally spend most of my time running or organizing. Neoncon would be no different.

Evening time came, and I sat down at Jay Olson’s Shadowrun Missions game. Jay and I exchanged a number of tweets about it and I asked him to build me a character since I would not have time (or the books) to do one myself. Before continuing on to the game, let me be candid here. Okay, even if you don’t I will be anyway… If you read this blog you know I always try to be brutally honest.

I am not a fan of Shadowrun.

I have no specific issue with the setting, the system, the people, the adventures or the location of the game.

It just does not do it for me. Nothing specific. Just not my thing.

That said, since I have nothing against the game, I am definitely willing to play the game occasionally. If I get to play, then I’m even more interested in playing. I was intrigued about how they did their organized play (having never heard back from the Missions guys for my “Organized Play People” blog series).

So I finally sit down, and get handed a troll shaman.

NICE.

Look over the character… while I do not understand most of the crunch, I get the role. Look over the book for a few things. Bah, if I need something I’ll either wing it or be told how to do it, fail spectacularly and have a jolly ol’ time.

The adventure itself was a simple affair, with a few surprises. It was very entertaining and I must say that I had a blast playing Ralph B (for Boogerman) the Rat Troll. I did spend most of the adventure hiding or invisible, but had a great time trying to keep my mouth shut to get the promise bag of candy…

I was surprised and happy to get a 10$ Catalyst gift card at the end! I had a great time already. But 10$ adds a cherry to the sundae. Or with food prices on the strip… more like a Snickers bar for your meal…

Friday

Woke up early on Friday, got me a coffee and was on my way to running Encounter at Ramat Bridge. Exciting time. I know I had Robyn and Jay at the table, but did not know who else so I got everything ready. Table of four, game on. The adventure went well (even though they forgot to bring a healer, oops!). I noticed that pretty quickly the players understood the strong political undertone of the adventure.

Before I knew it, we were done, WELL ahead of time. The quickest run of Ramat Bridge ever! After the game, I sold my last copy of NeoExodus and had to start pointing people towards the swag pile for more.

Lunch.

Then in the afternoon, as I hovered near the muster area for Pathfinder Society, there seem to be a lull in the play. I had already played every PFS adventure offered. As things began to stagnate, I called out that I had a Call of Cthulhu adventure in my pocket. Within a few minutes, I had a table of 6 and they were on their way to Normandy…

I ran In Darkness, I wait the scenario I wrote for the 65th anniversary of D-Day. The players had a blast shooting at targets left and right – and each other. The adventure is fun, fast-paced and exciting more in-line with a Pulp Game than Call of Cthulhu, but the Mythos is clearly there. The fact that it deals with elements most of us are familiar with (at least in passing), makes the adventure that much more special.

I like how the adventure turns from a war film into a horror movie. Slowly, but unescapably.

For in Darkness, It waits…

The evening organized in a similar fashion, but this time I ran Ruins of Trovaska, the latest NeoExodus adventure I had come up with. This time, the adventure follows the PCs as they head into Sametia where they discover some more things about NeoExodus…

After that I went in search of food, then sleep.

Tomorrow: Saturday and Sunday.

JP